City Spy: It’s reunion time for GrandMet vets

Ten years after the last reunion, the drinks will flow again next week for 80 alumni of Grand Metropolitan, the food and leisure group that merged with Guinness to create Diageo in 1997.

John McGrath, who was later chairman of Boots, and Sir George Bull, who filled the same role at Sainsbury’s, are expected to join the gathering, which is being held aptly at Vintner’s Hall in the City.

Other old hands who fanned out from the Burger King, William Hill, Gilbey’s gin and Smirnoff vodka group into many of Britain’s top boardrooms include former finance chief Gerald Corbett, who went on to Railtrack, Woolworths and Britvic, number cruncher Rosemary Thorne, later Bradford & Bingley’s finance director, and former strategy boss-turned-serial non-executive Peter Cawdron.

Many of them learned their trade from Lord Sheppard, GrandMet’s former chairman, who will also be putting in an appearance. Paul Walsh, pictured, who stepped down as Diageo’s boss last year, will say a few words. Walsh has kept up links with the old firm by becoming chairman of caterer Compass, the product of a management buyout from GrandMet in 1987.

What about Ivan Menezes, Diageo’s current chief executive? Don’t expect Walsh’s successor to make an appearance. He came up through the Guinness side of the business for a start. Spy also hears he’s tied up that night, entertaining City editors.

* The City’s traders are gearing up to be beefcakes and ditch the trips to pubs and restaurants, according to one fitness coach. John JJ Hewitt, star of the latest Galaxy Minstrels advert and mentor to male stripper troupe the Dreamboys, has reported a rise in clients who are City professionals looking to work off those long boozy lunches. So are banker bonuses really being spent down the gym rather than at the bar?

Ladbrokes’ tax pain? Don’t bet on it

Ladbrokes, along with the rest of the bookmaking industry, is sweating over new taxes on its online business this December.

But how much did the bookmaker — which boasts a stock-market valuation of £1.4 billion — actually pay in taxes last year?

After a tax credit on more than £51 million in exceptional items, it contributed just £600,000 in total to the Treasury’s coffers. That’s a figure to bear in mind the next time we hear hand-wringing from the industry over tax changes.

Boss Richard Glynn picked up almost four times as much as Ladbrokes’ total tax bill last year in pay and bonuses for 2012.

A door opens on lift secrets

What is it about investment banks and lifts? A day after the man behind the highly amusing @GSElevator Twitter account was unmasked, a US Congressional committee report claimed that Credit Suisse conducted business with clients in secret elevators to help thousands of Americans avoid taxes.

At least Goldman Sachs has proved it has a sense of humour. After entertaining 627,000 followers for almost three years, the @GSElevator scribe was revealed to be Jean Lefevre, 34, who admitted he had never been employed by the investment bank. @GSElevator was a mix of lines purportedly overheard in the lifts of the Wall Street firm. They ranged from comments on real deals to straight banker-bashing.

When Lefevre was rumbled, a Goldman spokesman said: “We are pleased to report that the official ban on talking in elevators will be lifted, effective immediately.” Can Credit Suisse come up with an equally pithy response?

* So much for all that money the Co-op invested in a “tell us what you think we should do next” advertising campaign. The company, which goes to great lengths to distance itself from the struggling “Crystal Methodist” bank, in which it only owns a 30% stake these days, has boasted that 80,000 people have filled in its survey so far. But with the BBC’s Robert Peston revealing that the Co-op is selling its farms and may dispose of its pharmacies, has it already made up its mind?